Hardware biz issued trojan-laced drivers, says researcher

A maker of hardware for computer gamers has taken its support site offline following a report that it was surreptitiously distributing malware on its downloads section.

Carlsbad, California-based Razer took the precautionary move after Rik Ferguson, a senior security adviser in Europe with anti-virus firm Trend Micro, warned users could be at risk.

"A large amount of the device drivers offered for download at the Razer support site were infected with a Trojan," Ferguson wrote Monday. "It is unclear how long the problem has been ongoing, so in the meantime, if you downloaded anything from Razer recently, head over to HouseCall and run a full system scan and clean up if necessary."

Razer spokesman Heathcliff Hatcher said company officials weren't immediately able to confirm Ferguson's report, but decided to temporarily close the support site out of an abundance of caution.

"We're still investigating," he told The Register. "We've taken the support site down as a precaution to our customers. We are definitely giving it its due weight. It's a very serious concern for the company, and that's why we've gone ahead and taken the support site down."

According to Ferguson, the trojan was activated when users clicked on a link used to download drivers from the website. A recent analysis by VirusTotal shows the malware is detected by just seven of the 41 major AV products. The trojan then caused users to download a file named usbctl.exe, which installed another piece of malware known as WORM.ASPXOR.AB in a computer's system directory.

Ferguson said he was still awaiting a more thorough analysis from Trend Micro labs about exactly what the malware does. He said that based on a quick search of gaming forums, it appeared the attacks began in the past 24 to 36 hours. ®